9
Chapter Four: A Roona Honeymoon
Lyta and G'Kar had been staying on the Roona home-world for the past two months. Healer Tooga had insisted that they stay with him in his spacious home by the Roon Mountains. The Roona home-world was lush and green. It had never been invaded, like the Narn home-world had been, because it was in a rather out-of-the-way location. The Roona people were relentlessly hospitable, offering G'Kar and Lyta their every wish and comfort.
G'Kar, in his blissful state of pouchly exo-pregnancy, was soaking it all up, like the rays of sunshine which shone upon this beautiful world.
"Oh, Lyta. My dear Lyta! Why don't we stay here until our pouchlings are all grown up?"
"G'Kar, I think you need to grow up!" Lyta scolded him, "You know we can't stay here. I have to return in a few months' time to fulfill my promise to Mr. Garibaldi. Have you forgotten about him while you've been playing Pouch-Daddy?"
"Playing Pouch-Daddy!" G'Kar retorted furiously, "Why, Lyta Alexander! I haven't been playing, I assure you. It is hard work carrying these pouchlings around everywhere I go and nursing them every day. And no, I haven't forgotten about poor Mr. Garibaldi. He's my friend, too! I once risked my life to find him when he went missing...I ended up being caught and tortured by the Centauris because I was searching for him. Yes, you must remove the telepathic block which was ruthlessly inserted into his mind by that dreadful Psi Corps man, Mr. Bester. I am only too well aware of that, but...Lyta, we have a responsibility to our children as well!"
"G'Kar," Lyta spoke to him fiercely, "I made a commitment to Byron's cause long before I made a...commitment, if that's what we want to call it, to you and the kids."
Lyta used the word "commitment" with an ironic twist. Healer Tooga and his family had thrown them a "surprise wedding" last week, and had even presented them with a surprise marriage certificate.
"Your pouchlings were born in Roonan space," Tooga had explained, "and, under our law, you two are officially married. Any couple who births children on or around this planet is automatically deemed to be married and must be presented with a marriage certificate within three months. We consider the raising of children to be the most sacred responsibility that a couple can aspire to. As the Healer who witnessed your pouchlings' birth, I am hereby authorized to proclaim you, Lyta, and you, G'Kar, husband and wife—by Roonan Law! You may now join us in an all-night celebration of your joy!"
G'Kar and Lyta had been flabbergasted. They went along with it in order to be polite to their hosts, but they had both proceeded to get very drunk that night. Tooga had reprimanded G'Kar for drinking while he was nursing the pouchlings, but G'Kar argued that the one night of drinking would not harm his hardy Narn pouchlings.
"It is...after all...our wedding night, Tooga," the inebriated Narn told him, "Is it not?"
Tooga allowed him his one night of celebration, but the Healer gave very strict orders that he was not to drink again while pouching the young ones. G'Kar's belly was becoming bigger and bigger, as Na'Tal and Byron grew inside his pouch. Tooga, meanwhile, was trying to make their stay as enjoyable as possible so that they would never want to leave.
"As parents on this world, you are obliged to stay here until your pouchlings are grown," Tooga lectured them, "and by doing so, you can help us to better understand this amazing biological feat of yours. We insist that you stay for at least twenty years, until the pouchlings are formal adults. Anything else that you were involved in before you came here ought to take second place."
Tooga had kept badgering them about staying for the next twenty years, until finally his wife Tillga voiced a strenuous objection.
"Tooga!" she snarled at him one day as he cajoled the couple with his plans for them, "Lyta and G'Kar are a free couple! They have other duties back on their home-worlds, I am sure. Shame on you for pressuring them to stay here! Your reasons for wanting them to stay are self-serving. You only want to study their children so that you can present your great research to the University and be rewarded for it."
Tooga had been apologetic before his wife, but the moment she was out of hearing range, the eager Healer would begin a "guilt assault" on the oddly-matched pair.
"G'Kar and Lyta!" He confronted them one day, "I understand from your conversations with my wife that both of you are from war-torn worlds...and that you are thinking of going back to your old conflict-ridden area of space. How can you even consider doing such a thing to your own children when Roona offers you a haven of peace and safety in which to raise them?"
Lyta had been just about ready to strangle Tooga, and so G'Kar stepped in and used his diplomatic talents.
"We can't stay here forever, Tooga," he countered, "as much as we would like to do so. But you see, we have our responsibilities back home. Lyta must lead her people to freedom, and I must serve the Interstellar Alliance...an outstanding political organization, by the way, that the people of Roona are most welcome to join. We could help to provide protection for your unblemished planet...but I digress, Healer Tooga. We do thank you for all your many gifts and acts of hospitality, but we do not wish to 'wear out our welcome' as the Humans say. I'm sure your wife and other family members must be getting quite sick and tired of us...we can be the most annoying of guests. But please, don't fret about our imminent departure. We will always think of your delightful family and your wonderful people as our friends. We even consider you a friend, in spite of your crafty determination to use our little brood to increase your stature amongst your colleagues. Nonetheless, you have been more than kind to us, and we are grateful."
Tooga had hung his head in guilt when he heard G'Kar's comment about his plan to increase his stature amongst his colleagues.
"G'Kar," Tooga pleaded, "You know it's about more than just my status with my colleagues. Tillga and I honestly think of you as our own family members. We don't want to hear one day that you and your children have been killed in some senseless conflict."
"Conflict is inevitable, Tooga," G'Kar preached to him sadly, "And we cannot avoid it. Your people are indeed fortunate to have evaded it for so long...you might want to think about my proposal that your people join our Interstellar Alliance."
"We aren't simply fortunate," Tooga replied fiercely, "We have made our own fortunes. We have worked hard to develop a consciousness which favors peace as opposed to war. And we have done all we can to hide and protect ourselves from those who would do us harm. Thank you for your offer of protection from the Alliance, but we have never formed alliances with people who participate in armed conflicts. We do, however, extend love and friendship to those who respect us...and you and your dear wife Lyta have certainly done that. We would miss both of you so much if you decided to leave! Couldn't you stay just a little longer...to give the pouchlings time to grow stronger for the journey? If you did that, I might even be able to arrange for you to speak with some of Roona's finest leaders, G'Kar—I can't promise that they would agree to join your Interstellar Alliance, but you could at least talk to them about the possibility. If you leave, you lose your opportunity to influence them in that direction."
G'Kar appeared to be considering Tooga's invitation to stay "a little longer", for the sake of the pouchlings...and the possibility of snagging another member-world for his precious Alliance. Lyta looked at the two of them and sighed. She could see that, in addition to his political wiliness, the Narn's hormone-induced "nurturing side" was continuing to influence his behavior. She noted that he was wearing his red robe, and recalled that the equally wily Tooga had given G'Kar this brilliant scarlet robe to wear at their infamous "wedding" party. G'Kar had been fretting at the time that he "didn't have a thing to wear", and so Tooga had given him his best robe for the occasion. The Simian knew that G'Kar was very taken with fine robes lately, and had cleverly won him over for that particular event. In fact, the two males were quite adept at lavishing each other with fine gifts, words and arguments in an attempt to convince the other. Tooga kept attempting to entice G'Kar into staying longer, and G'Kar would constantly try to persuade Tooga to talk his world's leaders into joining President John Sheridan's Interstellar Alliance. His nurturing instincts had certainly not blunted the former diplomat's political guile, Lyta noticed ruefully.
"Perhaps," G'Kar finally conceded, "We could stay just a little longer. Would that be possible, my dear wife Lyta?"
Lyta grimaced at him as Tooga finally left the couple to discuss the issue in private.
"G'Kar," Lyta grumbled, "What the hell are you doing—playing 'dear committed husband' to impress Tooga? This so-called 'marriage' of ours is just a crock of shit! We weren't even asked if we wanted to marry; they just went ahead and married us whether we chose it or not. You aren't the monogamous sort, Buddy, and you know it. The first year that we were traveling together, you took as many opportunities as you could to have sex with just about every species of female in the galaxy. That's why I was so pissed off that you hadn't even tried to make a pass at me, Mr. Abstinence. How would you like it if I told Tooga about all that?"
"I'm sorry, Lyta," he apologized to her, "It was just that I needed to get my sexual energy out somehow, especially since I was traveling alone with you. But the truth is that I am in love with you, Lyta Alexander, whether you and I like it or not. I could abstain from having sexual relations with every single woman in the Universe except for you right now, if you told me that you wanted to stay here on Roona with me and raise our pouchlings in this peaceful and safe environment."
Lyta felt as though she wanted to scream, but G'Kar held out his hand.
"Come with me," he said, putting his hand in hers and leading her up his favorite mountain trail, "Let's hike up to the stream, just you, me, and the two little Alexanders in my pouch."
"Maybe I should start calling you 'Mr. G'Kar Alexander', since you like using my last name so much."
G'Kar chuckled at Lyta's comment, walking with her up the mountainous terrain that reminded him so much of the G'Quan Mountains back on Narn—except of course, the Roon Mountains were much greener and more biologically diverse, not having been treated to the Centauris' resource-stripping war policies. On Roona, the grasses were green and golden, interspersed with a variety of exotic evergreens. They stopped under one such tree to survey the natural beauty.
"You know," Lyta murmured, "This planet would be just perfect as a home-world for the telepaths...if these ape-people weren't already living here..."
"Don't go down that road, Lyta," G'Kar warned her softly, "I saw my world slowly decimated during the Centauri Occupation when I was a child; and later, while I served the Narn Regime as a soldier, I perpetrated the kind of atrocities that you're thinking about on other worlds, other peoples. I know from experience that it damages the souls of everyone concerned...besides destroying the natural soul of the planet."
"Are you a telepath, now, G'Kar?" she asked him, "That you know what I'm thinking before I even say it?"
G'Kar remained silent, but she knew that he was right. It was very tempting to consider invading a planet like this, which had such a peaceful and yet weak group of people living on it. She thought of the pacifism that her lost love Byron had taught to her and his other followers; and she immediately felt ashamed of herself for even having thought about taking this beautiful planet by force.
G'Kar let go of her hand and walked ahead. Lyta followed him slowly. When they arrived at the clear, blue mountain stream, he threw off the red robe that Tooga had given him. He sat down on a large rock by the running water, and gestured for her to sit beside him. Lyta smiled at him in a sly manner, throwing all of her clothes off as well. She sat down and leaned against him.
"You want to go skinny-dipping in this little river, Babe?" Lyta teased him, "You know the water will be too freezing cold for my sweet and sensitive Human ass."
G'Kar reached out and embraced her, holding her close to him.
"Just sit with me here," he told her softly, "and feel the heartbeats of our pouchlings as they sleep within my pouch."
Lyta complied, resting her head on his leathery shoulder.
"G'Kar," she whispered to him, "You know as well as I do that this fine little Roona Honeymoon of ours is going to end once we get back to the home galaxy. I have an obligation to lead my people in the coming fight against the Psi Corps. I can't keep traipsing around the stars with you doing this soul-healing thing forever. And you are going to have to be the primary parent—you are going to have to raise Na'Tal and Byron. I will try my best to be involved in their lives, but you can't expect me to do what your first wife did for you. You told me that you ran off and left her to raise all your pouchlings while you fought in the Resistance against the Centauris. This time, it's different. Your revolutionary days have come and gone...you're in your sixties now, and you're re-thinking your whole life. You're more priest than warrior—isn't that what you told your friend Ta'Lon when you left? And now, I'm the young warrior. I don't have the same wisdom that you do, G'Kar...you know it has to be you."
"I know," G'Kar murmured, "I know how the wheel turns, Lyta. But just hold me for awhile, and feel their hearts. This is what my First Mate told me before I would go running off to fight in yet another battle...and sleep with countless other women in between. I have always done the same thing in all of my intimate relationships...after I pouched the children, I would hand them over to my mate or to my latest lover and I would leave. But now...you're right, Lyta. I am fast becoming an old man. I have gone from ruthless to toothless in eight short years."
"Oh, you haven't lost your teeth yet, Old Man," Lyta reassured him, "I have dozens of your bloody love-bites on my body to prove it."
"Will you sleep with other males in between your battles, Lyta?" he asked softly.
"Maybe," she replied, "If I have the time."
Their wistful musings about battles past and future were interrupted as a small head poked its way out of G'Kar's pouch.
"It is Na'Tal!" he cried, as the little, spotted Narn-Human gave a rasping shriek. She had begun to sprout the same fiery red hair as her mother, and she had the scarlet eyes of her father. G'Kar handed her to Lyta to hold as her twin brother Byron followed her out into the world.
"Byron," he said to the little boy, whose hair and eyes were also red but whose Narn facial features were more pronounced than those of his sister, "And Na'Tal. Welcome to our Universe."